Recipes, reviews and recreation with the Madhouse Family - two parents, three kids, two dogs, all bilingual !

Tuesday, 24 October 2017

Spooky Ba-ghouls for Halloween !

We love bagels here at The Madhouse. They are great for making fun sandwiches for the kids - you may remember our Loch Ness Bagel monster, bagel pizzas, bagel burgers and cute bagel creatures, amongst other things. (If you missed that, have a look at this blogpost here.) New York Bakery Co. have recently added fun-sized Maple Mini Bagels to their extensive range of bagels, and they sent us over a delivery along with some Halloween props to inspire us to get creative in the kitchen.

As it's half term, I got the kids involved in creating a spooky spread and we had great fun flexing our creative muscles, before gobbling up our malevolent masterpieces !

Pierre went down the simple but effective route, adding a slice of cheese then slathering on some red gel food colouring as fake blood. Eeeeek !

I used the bagel as a stencil on a slice of orange Mimolette cheese to get a rough circle, added some stripes of brown sauce, then some beetroot eyes, nose and mouth for this scary Jack o' lantern design.

Strips of chicken ham, olive eyes and a beetroot mouth make a simple but effective mummy face.

Next Pierre made a ghost ... which we decided looked like a rabbit ... so it turned into a were-rabbit ! Whatever it is, he obviously got hungry and ate a bite as he was making it !

Another slice of chicken ham, along with cherry tomato eyes (with mimolette pupils) and a beetroot mouth made this cute ghost. I should have toasted the bagel first, then I could have called it ghost toast !

And finally, more mimolette, along with some cream cheese to hold the legs in place, created this scary spider, along with cherry tomato eyes and a beetroot mouth.

As you can see from his face, Pierre thought this was great fun and he had loads of imaginative ideas for gory treats !

We laid out the table with some Halloween decorations and called the girls down to see (and eat) the results of our handiwork. They thought it was hilarious, not to mention delicious, and it all disappeared in minutes, with extra bagels, cream cheese and marshmallow fluff being brought out for reinforcements.

If you want a simpler idea, the bagels make a great table decoration with spooky-themed cake toppers poked into them. You could even add some cherry tomatoes and olives (or pineapple and cheese chunks if you want to go retro-style) for added nibbles.

We had a giggle when we were tucking in. Pierre grabbed hold of his fake blood cheese bagel slightly too enthusiastically and it landed (upside down of course !) on his leg. He wanted to stay like that until Madhouse Daddy got home from work to scare him but we compromised on taking a photo with a (cream-cheese smeared) knife to record the horror moment for posterity !

The mini bagels are the perfect snack size for kids, who often find a whole bagel too big. They have a lovely chewy texture and the maple syrup gives them a very slight sweetness, which is perfectly suited to both sweet and savoury toppings. Each 36g bagel only contains 96 calories, 0.1g of saturated fat and 3.3g of sugar, and they're surprisingly filling, making them a great lunchtime (trick or) treat if you're watching your waistline too.

Disclosure : We received some bagels and a shopping voucher to take part in the challenge.

About Me

I'm mum to Sophie (born in 2001), Juliette (born in 2005) and Pierre (born in 2009). We're all French/English bilingual - even our two dogs Didou and Vicky ! If you have any comments or want me to review your products or host a giveaway, you can contact me at cherylpasquier2002@yahoo.fr .